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Kennedy has a well-deserved reputation for being a tightwad, despite his income of roughly $700,000 a year, the main source of which is a blind trust. (Staffers have had to argue with him for even small raises.) But where his family is concerned he spends freely: $500,000 for his McLean house in 1968, $100,000 for the apartment in Boston in which Joan lives and $75,000 in 1961 for the white frame house on Squaw Island, about a mile from the Kennedy family compound at Hyannis Port. He is at Squaw Island almost every weekend during the warm-weather months, and these weekends focus on family and sports. Kennedy loves the outdoors, even though he has dry skin and too much exposure causes it to break out in red blotches. He and Patrick swim before breakfast, then they may go surf casting for an hour. After another hour of tennis at Rose Kennedy's house, Ted visits with his mother, often taking her for a short walk along the beach. On Sundays, though not deeply religious, he usually attends Mass. The Rev. James English, Kennedy's pastor in Washington, describes him as "a believer who does his best to live his life as a Roman Catholic."
By noon, he is aboard his 55-ft. sloop Curragh, which he treats the way a teenager nurses his first automobile. Kennedy will hastily grab a rag to wipe a thumbprint off a chrome fitting or to polish the brass. Once Ethel dropped a deviled egg on the teak deck. Kennedy frowned as she wiped up. "I'll bet we don't get invited back tomorrow," she murmured to a companion. She was right.
After lunch on Curragh, Kennedy frequently races off Hyannis Port aboard his 25-ft. Wianno Senior Victura. Wearing shorts and a T shirt, he jovially bellows orders at his crew, usually Nephew Joe and Son Patrick. Kennedy likes to win and often does. After the races, there is more fishing, more swimming, more tennis (in Washington, he plays doubles two or three times a week; his back does not permit singles). Opponents describe him as having a solid serve and playing aggressively.
Dinner is a family affair, with Kennedy, a meat-and-potatoes man, sometimes acting as chef. A favorite: steaks with lots of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. He drinks wine with his meals and takes a Scotch and soda or two at night. After dinner he often plays charades or other parlor games with the children until about 9:30, when he turns to his attache case for bedtime reading.
There is only one person who comes close to being what Kennedy's brothers were to him. That is his brother-in-law Stephen Smith.
Only a few people qualify as buddies: Senator John Culver, of Iowa; former Senator John Tunney, of California; Real Estate Developer Claude Hooton, who lives in Houston; and New York Lawyer Timothy Hanan. These men know his worries and can talk openly with him.
Kennedy has trusted political agents, such as Washington Attorney Paul Kirk, 41, and ABC News Vice President David Burke, but he rarely mixes with them socially.
Kennedy also remains somewhat aloof from his Senate staffers. He almost never goes out with them on social occasions and rarely gets involved in personnel problems. He has a brisk approach to subordinates that he may have inherited from his father. He often tells his staff how the patriarch would have handled a problem. Like Joseph Kennedy, the Senator rarely hands out compliments or credit but is quick to assess blame when something goes wrong. Once he angrily dressed down an aide for not informing his mother that he was going to appear on a TV interview show. After he cooled off, the aide explained in a memo that Rose had been out when the staff called and that she had been sent a videotape of the interview. Kennedy scrawled an apology of sorts: "I'll eat my hat—the next time Bill Buckley writes a good column about me."